Day 2 - Buenos AiresOct 30, 2009
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Today is our second day in Buenos Aires and it has been quite eventful. We ended up spending too much time at a bank office today - simple because we had the time and we were annoyed.
The room was very hot when I woke up at around eight in the morning. I headed out to the atrium and started writing blogs. Iris woke up about half an hour later and we went to have breakfast downstairs. The breakfast was nice but basic - tea/coffee, bread, jam, butter and cereal with milk. Tasted fairly nice but we were still full after last night’s gigantic dinner.
We left the hostel around ten and got on bus 64 heading towards the Camenita in La Boca. La Boca is in the poor end of town but a small part of it is very touristy. For a long time it has been home to many artists and the area has turned into a small artists’ colony. As it’s not recommended to go during the night we decided to head there first thing in the morning to ensure that we were safe…
The bus trip was all-right except that we found out that it’s not possible to pay bus fares using bills on the Buenos Aires buses - if you want to go by bus you need a good supply of coins. And sadly, the coins are very hard to come by. There seems to be mainly bills in circulation. However, a very nice lady behind us exchanged a two-peso bill for coins and we were all-right.
La Boca and Camenita was very interesting to see. The houses were painted in all colours of the rainbow and there were loads of restaurants - most of them seemed quite posh. There were a fair bit of sculptures to be seen. Street artists were trying to sell their paintings on the streets. The sun was shining. We really enjoyed the excursion to there and we took loads of pictures with our big camera.
We’re now so happy to have our big camera that we don’t know if we would be able live without it. Whenever we don’t have it - and simply carry the small compact camera - we don’t feel like taking pictures. It’s not as much fun as with the big one.
There were loads of tourists in the Camenita area and loads of school classes. We expected that there would be loads of tourists but we never expected loads of school classes.
After walking around in Camenita for close to one hour we decided to leave. Our aim was Recoleta and we wanted to go by bus. However, this turned out to be much more difficult than we expected. Finding change for the bus proved impossible. We tried asking for change in stores, tried buying ice-creams to get some coins and all sorts of things but we couldn’t get any. The people were very helpful but no change was to be found. We got fed up with trying to get change after close to half an hour and jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to the closest underground. No problems and we got there quickly.
As we tried buying tokens from the underground lady we got the shock of our life. She claimed that one of our 100 peso bills was fake. We simply didn’t believe it as we had drawn the money from one of the Banco de Ciudad’s ATMs. But when we looked closer at the note we realized that she probably was correct. There was no water mark and no silver thread. You could also see that part of the print of the note was smudgy where the note had been in contact with water - pretty much like what happens when water gets in contact with a page printed by an ink-jet printer.
We were very upset and fuming with the bank. We had withdrawn the money from an ATM at the bus station - and as we needed to buy tickers for leaving Buenos Aires - we decided to go to the bank at the station and complain. We decided that complaining about this was more important than seeing Recoleta.
Although 100 pesos isn’t that much money - perhaps 15 pounds or 200 kronor - we wouldn’t stomach the loss and kick-up a fuss about it. It’s still more than enough for us to stay in the hostel for one night and one lunch…
The people at the Banco de Ciudad were not very helpful to begin with. They simple looked at us like fools with a “why should we believe you” attitude. However, we wouldn’t give up and we were very pushy and stubborn. Speaking loudly in a bank office stating that their ATMs dispense fake money so that all 20+ customers hear what you’re saying normally gives results.
Eventually got to talk to one of the managers at the office. He was fairly sympathetic and we came to like him towards the end. At the beginning he probably didn’t believe us but started getting a bit more sympathetic to our case once we pulled out the receipt from the ATM. He tried to quiz us and make us “realize” that the bill didn’t come from their ATM and that we had gotten it from elsewhere. He also tried explaining that it was very unlikely that the bill came from the ATM. We wouldn’t accept any of his explanations and we wouldn’t go away.
The manager eventually started explaining that it was possible for us to file a formal complaint and they would investigate - somehow they would go through all records and try to match up the number of the bill to the ATM. The process would take very long - a few weeks at least. We didn’t mind this. He seemed annoyed having to waste time on petty little things like this…
After completing the paper work he needed to see our passports - otherwise he couldn‘t file the report. We don’t carry the originals with us due to the risk of losing them. He started to look a bit more happy - he probably thought that maybe they will finally give up and he can go on doing some more interesting work with less annoying customers.
As we have plenty of time - we’re after all on a career break - we decided to go back to the hostel and fetch the passports. One hour later we returned and the poor manager was back to his paperwork. Once the report was completed he probably had spent two hours on our fake 100 pesos bill. Poor guy!
We will get the results in a few weeks time. We’re very certain that the note came from the ATM and we’re certain we’re right. Otherwise we don’t know where the note came from, especially as it’s been sitting in my pocket up until the underground lady pointed out that it was false. Our persistence with the bank may also have convinced the bank manager that we might be right. Very few people would after all walk into a bank and spend a full afternoon kicking up a fuss if they weren’t very sure about their thing.
After spending quality time with Banco de Ciudad we went and bought bus tickets to Mar de Plata. We’re departing Sunday at noon. The bus trip is only a few hours. We’re hoping to get some quality beach time before heading to Patagonia and the cold.
Our next stop of the day was the Recoleta cemetery. It is located in the posh neighborhood of Recoleta in Buenos Aires where the rich and famous live. We expected to see really nice and posh houses as we headed there. It looked quite scruffy and we would never have guessed that this was home to the rich. Very mediocre buildings.
The Recoleta cemetery was a fantastic sight. We have never seen anything like it. It looks nothing like any cemetery we have seen in Europe or elsewhere. Rather than having small gravestones people have built miniature churches or temples for themselves. It’s pretty much like walking around in a small town with miniature houses or churches everywhere.
The graves are very richly decorated. Most have large statues of angels, Madonnas, Jesuses and the likes. Many have dooms or cupolas. A lot of the graves also have stained-glass windows. The graves are typically built of marble like materials and they are very impressive. It is certainly an impressive sight.
It is also possible to look into a lot of the graves - many have glass doors. The inside typically looks like a small church with a crucifix, maybe a painting, candle sticks and candles. Many also have a downstairs / basement.
Quite a few of the graves have fallen into disrepair with broken windows, plants growing on (and inside) the tombs, water damage etc. This makes it a bit ironic. Most people buried in these graves have spent so much time, money, ego, ambition and effort on their final resting place - probably reflecting massive egos - and then their tombs starting to look like a house in a shanty-town… Sad, ironic and tragic…
The most famous grave is the one where Evita is buried. She rests in the Duarte grave with her father’s family. Strangely enough she’s not buried with her husband - Mr Peron - who rests in a different graveyard. The grave was nothing extraordinary - it looked like most other graves on the cemetery. The main difference is the constant supply of flowers. Many people still seem to love Evita. There were even so many flowers that they had to put a waste bin not too far away from the grave so that they could remove the old flowers to make room for the new ones…
After visiting the Recoleta cemetery we headed back to the hostel by underground. We showered and rested for a bit before heading out again. We had booked tickets to see a tango show at one of the theatres in town - Porteno Tango.
The theatre was located not too far away from the hostel - pretty close to the gigantic obelisk. The show was set to start at around 10.15 and we got there in good time. We got reasonably good seats inside the theatre. The theatre was the type where you can also eat and the entire floor was filled with tables. We had decided not to eat there as the prices were ridiculously high - three course dinner for 600 pesos…
Iris has read on the BBC news that many of the tango shows in Buenos Aires are faring very badly due to the current economic crisis. Many of the smaller shows have been forced to shut down and the big ones are struggling. We can definitely testify to this. We were there on a Friday night and the place wasn’t even half-full…
The show turned out to be very impressive. There was a live band with 12 musicians playing wonderful music. There were two singers and a total of ten dancers. The show was set in the 1940s and was meant to depict the hey-days of tango in Argentina. Loads of scenery and costume changes. A lot of money had gone into designing the show.
The dancers were fantastic. It’s hard to understand how they managed to do the things they did - they probably have flexible bones. We were hugely impressed with the show. Definitely a recommendation for anyone going to Buenos Aires.
Iris was really impressed with all the leg kicking in the show. She really wanted us to take up tango when we get back from our trip. I’m not convinced as I think I probably have to wear steel plated shoes and leg protectors…
The show ended close to midnight and we walked back to the hostel to go to sleep. Both of us were quite tired after a very nice and eventful day!
Marcus
